Site of National Interest (SIN), Taranto, Statte, Puglia, Italy
Taranto
Italy's largest steelworks (formerly Ilva, now Acciaierie d'Italia), with an Eni refinery, a cement works, the port and the naval Arsenal, facing the Gulf of Taranto. Contamination affects soil, groundwater, air and the sediments of the Mar Piccolo: metals, PAHs, dioxins and PCBs.
At a glance
- Status
- Remediation under way
- Area
- 4,383 ha on land, 7,005 ha in water1
- Activity
- since 1945
- Media
- soil, groundwater, sediment, air, living organisms
- Kind of site
- steel, oil, port, military, landfill, power plant
- Area. 2021 MASE fact sheet: 4,383 hectares on land and 7,005 at sea (including the Mar Piccolo and the Salina Grande). The perimeter was redrawn by decree of 20 December 2024; the new area has not been verified.
Contaminants
Organic compounds
Status
Remediation under way
According to the MASE fact sheet (2021), groundwater and soil remediation is under way at the Eni refinery; in the former Ilva area characterisation is complete and containment of the groundwater beneath the ore yards has begun. Public areas (including the Mar Piccolo) have been under a Special Commissioner since 2012. No up-to-date official percentage was found.
Story
The site lies within the area declared «at high risk of environmental crisis» and takes in almost all of the roughly 200 firms in the industrial zone: the former Ilva steelworks, the Eni refinery, the Cementir cement works and smaller industries. According to the Ministry the main pollution sources are the steel, oil and cement industries and the naval Arsenal, and all environmental compartments are affected.
Soils contain metals and metalloids (including arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium VI, mercury, lead, vanadium), cyanide, hydrocarbons, PAHs, benzene and dioxins; groundwater also carries sulphates, chlorinated solvents and MTBE; Mar Piccolo sediments hold metals, PAHs and PCBs.
The perimeter dates from 2000. After the Memorandum of Understanding of 26 July 2012, a decree-law appointed a Special Commissioner for remediation, environmental upgrading and redevelopment; in 2015 the works were brought under the Institutional Development Contract for Taranto. The large companies have characterised their own areas and started prevention or remediation measures.
Timeline
- 1998Law 426/1998 names Taranto a site of national interest.
- 2000Perimeter set by decree of 10 January 2000.
- 2012Memorandum of Understanding of 26 July and appointment of a Special Commissioner (decree-law 129/2012).
- 2015Decree-law 1/2015 and, on 30 December, the Institutional Development Contract for the Taranto area.
- 2024Perimeter redrawn by decree of 20 December 2024.
Health
SENTIERI, Sixth Report (2023; mortality 2013-2017, hospital admissions 2014-2018, regional reference): excess mortality in both sexes from all causes, all malignant tumours, circulatory diseases and digestive diseases. Among causes linked a priori to the site's exposures: excess of lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma in both sexes, of bladder cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men, of liver cancer in women. 39.8% of the site's residents live in census tracts with high deprivation.
Remediation
- 2021groundwater containmentGroundwater containment started in the ore-yard area of the former Ilva; groundwater and soil remediation under way at the Eni refinery (status as reported in the 2021 MASE fact sheet).
Plants and fungi at this site
PhytoremediationField scale
Populus (clone Monviso)
Plant-assisted bioremediation in an area close to the city of Taranto, historically contaminated by PCBs and heavy metals: poplars of the Monviso clone were planted, with chemical and microbiological soil analyses at different distances from the trunk (0.25-1 m) and depths (0-20 and 20-40 cm) at planting and after 420 days. The paper's abstract does not say whether the area lies inside the SIN perimeter, nor list the individual metals.
Outcome At day 420, a significant decrease in PCB congeners and a reduction in all heavy metals where poplars were present; no reduction in soil without poplars. Microbial activity increased in the rhizosphere, in some cases up to 1 m from the trunk and 40 cm deep.
PhytoremediationField scale, 2013–2017
Populus generosa × Populus nigra 'Monviso'
CNR-IRSA (Ancona, Barra Caracciolo and colleagues) planted about 650 cuttings of the Monviso poplar clone on 785 m² in April 2013, after a compost dressing. Soil and its microbial community were analysed at planting, after 420 days and after 55 months, at several distances from the trunk and at two depths.
Outcome After 420 days PCB congeners and metals had fallen in the soil under the poplars and not in unplanted soil. At 55 months PCBs, 240 ng/g on average at the start, were below the legal limit of 60 ng/g in the planted plots; nearly all metals were below the limits, cobalt excepted. The unplanted control soil held about 1,400 ng/g of PCBs, more than the starting average of the planted plots, so the comparison with the control should be read with care.
- Ancona et al., Plant-assisted bioremediation of a historically PCB and heavy metal-contaminated area in Southern Italy, New Biotechnology, 2017
- Barra Caracciolo et al., Characterization of the belowground microbial community in a poplar-phytoremediation strategy of a multi-contaminated soil, Frontiers in Microbiology, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2020
PhytoremediationField scale, 2014–
Cannabis sativa
Vincenzo Fornaro, with the CanaPuglia association, sowed hemp in April 2014 on the land where the sheep used to graze, to convert the farm (fibre, products) and with the stated aim of cleaning the soil. A second phase, funded by the regional «Principi Attivi» call, was to sample the plants.
Outcome No measured result was found: the sources consulted are press articles and report no soil or plant analyses. The remediation effect of hemp at Taranto therefore remains undocumented.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Medicago sativaAlfalfa, lucernePolychlorinated biphenylsPetroleum hydrocarbonsPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonsEvidence: field
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Arabidopsis halleriHaller's rockcressEvidence: field
- Berkheya coddiiBerkheya coddiiEvidence: field
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaePolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonsEvidence: greenhouse
- Rhizophagus irregularisEvidence: greenhouse
- Paxillus involutusBrown roll-rimEvidence: greenhouse
- Pisolithus albusEvidence: greenhouse
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonsEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Sources
- Scheda SIN Taranto (copia d'archivio), MASE, 2021
- Riferimenti normativi per i Siti di bonifica di Interesse Nazionale (agg. 31 dicembre 2025), ISPRA, 2025
- SENTIERI. Sesto Rapporto - Taranto (Epidemiol Prev 2023;47(1-2) Suppl 1), con allegato "Informazioni sui 46 siti studiati", Epidemiologia & Prevenzione / ISS, 2023
- Ancona V. et al., Plant-assisted bioremediation of a historically PCB and heavy metal-contaminated area in Southern Italy (abstract, Europe PMC), New Biotechnology, 2017
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.